Rock formation at Rainbow Mountain Preserve, Madison, Alabama
Typical view at Rainbow Mountain Preserve in Madison, Alabama. The park is quite rocky in areas, comprised of a formation called the Hartselle Sandstone, the formation being made up of sandstone, limestone, and shale laid down in the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods of the Paleozoic Era (570-225 million years ago). These sediments accumulated in depositional settings ranging from shallow shelf to back-barrier lagoons and tidal flats, all areas relating to shallow seas. Trace fossils and to a lesser extent body fossils can be abundant in the formation, particularly worms, bivalves, bryozoans, asteroids (starfish), and ophiuroids (brittle stars). Brachiopods are in my experience the most common fossil, though crinoid fragments can be common.
The formation has been quarried in several locations for sandstone for use in building, landscaping and civil engineering and ground into sand for casting. In some areas, such as near Littleville in Colbert County the sandstone is impregnated with bituminous alphaltum, leading some to explore the possibility that the bed harbors oil reserves, perhaps extending below the Warrior coal fields of Northwest Alabama.
www.bhamwiki.com/w/Hartselle_sandstone
www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ichnology/IN-Hartselle-...
www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1152
Rock formation at Rainbow Mountain Preserve, Madison, Alabama
Typical view at Rainbow Mountain Preserve in Madison, Alabama. The park is quite rocky in areas, comprised of a formation called the Hartselle Sandstone, the formation being made up of sandstone, limestone, and shale laid down in the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian periods of the Paleozoic Era (570-225 million years ago). These sediments accumulated in depositional settings ranging from shallow shelf to back-barrier lagoons and tidal flats, all areas relating to shallow seas. Trace fossils and to a lesser extent body fossils can be abundant in the formation, particularly worms, bivalves, bryozoans, asteroids (starfish), and ophiuroids (brittle stars). Brachiopods are in my experience the most common fossil, though crinoid fragments can be common.
The formation has been quarried in several locations for sandstone for use in building, landscaping and civil engineering and ground into sand for casting. In some areas, such as near Littleville in Colbert County the sandstone is impregnated with bituminous alphaltum, leading some to explore the possibility that the bed harbors oil reserves, perhaps extending below the Warrior coal fields of Northwest Alabama.
www.bhamwiki.com/w/Hartselle_sandstone
www.envs.emory.edu/faculty/MARTIN/ichnology/IN-Hartselle-...
www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-1152